President Trump has had enough of the Democrat Party’s antics. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown has now lasted over 50 days, during which many employees have gone unpaid due to the actions of the Democratic Party. Their base is advocating for the defunding of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the dismantling of DHS. It is crucial that this agency remains operational, particularly with the heightened threat of terrorist retaliation following Operation Epic Fury.
TSA (Transportation Security Administration) agents are finally receiving their pay, thanks to an order from Trump, which covers their salaries using funds from last year’s tax cut bill. Despite congressional Republicans struggling to finalize a spending measure to reopen DHS before the Easter recess, Trump has issued a memo instructing that all DHS employees are to be compensated, citing national security concerns:
President Donald Trump on Friday directed the Department of Homeland Security to pay all of its employees amid a record-long shutdown at DHS that’s lasted nearly 50 days.
The presidential memo authorizes paychecks for workers who have gone without pay since DHS funding stopped on Feb. 14.
“More than 35,000 employees, including Coast Guard civilians, Federal Emergency Management Agency employees helping to prepare the Nation for disaster response, and cybersecurity professionals at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, have gone without a paycheck for nearly 2 months because of congressional Democrats,” Trump wrote in the memo, a day after indicating he would take action.
Trump has repeatedly blamed the partial government shutdown on Democrats, who are demanding significant changes to immigration enforcement tactics before lending their support to legislation that would fully fund DHS.
The president signed a similar memo last week that directed DHS to pay TSA workers, who had also gone without paychecks, as passengers endured significant delays at airports across the country. Those funds starting hitting employees’ bank accounts this week.
Senate Republicans passed a partial funding measure for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) before the recess, which excluded the funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol. They did this at 3 a.m. by a voice vote and then left town. This was what the Democrats wanted, although there was some drama surrounding the motion because Chuck Schumer indicated there might not be enough votes. Republicans were manipulated in a way they shouldn’t have allowed. This move complicated things for the House, which was required to act that day. Ultimately, the House opted for a 60-day continuing resolution, but that measure lacks enough votes to pass in the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson have since stated that they will support the Senate’s plan to fund DHS without ICE and CBP, and later address the rest of the agency’s funding through reconciliation. This approach would provide funding for ICE and CBP for three years without requiring any concessions from the Democrats regarding policies on de-masking or judicial warrants.
President Trump has stepped up – again – to ensure that the staffers are paid. While ICE and CBP agents continued to receive their pay, their civilian support staff had not been compensated.
